HATRED WILL BREAK YOUR BACK

“Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper -- it only leads to harm.”  (Psalm 37:8 NLT)

Oh, the gradual grasp of hatred. Its damage begins like the crack in my windshield. Thanks to a speeding truck on a gravel road, my window was chipped. With time the nick became a crack, and the crack became a winding tributary. Soon the windshield was a spider web of fragments. I couldn’t drive my car without thinking of the jerk who drove too fast. Though I’ve never seen him, I could describe him. He is some deadbeat bum who cheats on his wife, drives with a six-pack on the seat, and keeps the television so loud the neighbors can’t sleep. His carelessness blocked my vison. (Didn’t do much for my view out the windshield either.)

Ever heard the expression “blind rage”?

Let me be very clear. Hatred will sour your outlook and break your back. The load of bitterness is simply too heavy. Your knees will buckle under the strain, and your heart will break beneath the weight. The mountain before you is steep enough without the heaviness of hatred on your back. The wisest choice – the only choice – is for you to drop the anger. You will never be called upon to give anyone more grace than God has already given you…

The more we immerse ourselves in grace, the more likely we are to give grace. 

-- Max Lucado in “In the Grip of Grace”

#6057

OVER THE WEIGHT LIMIT

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  (Matthew 6:34 NIV)

What we have here may be the most important ammunition of all – a systematic strategy to weed out your worry. Jesus is saying something quite interesting: you won’t sink under the burden of today’s crises, but tomorrow’s agenda puts you over the weight limit. Have you ever tried to carry too many bags of groceries at the same time? After cleaning the eggs from your driveway, you’ll know better – and next time you’ll make two trips instead of one. Jesus tells us to carry today’s bag today and make a fresh trip tomorrow.

Living in the present tense is an art. Do you know someone who’s “not all there,” for his or her eyes are focused on some invisible horizon? This person is preoccupied with absent problems. But have you ever known someone who lives completely in the present? Such people seem lively, full of energy and charisma, and getting their money’s worth out of every new thing that comes along, and you won’t catch them worrying. That’s how Jesus wants us to live -- a day at a time. There’s a reason God placed us within the moment, bracketed away from both the past and the future. They’re both off-limits to us, and we need to post No Trespassing signs. The past is closed for good, and the future is still under construction. But today has everything you need. Come here and make your home. 

-- David Jeremiah in “Keep the Faith: How to Stand Strong in a World Turned Upside Down”

#5943

OUR BURDEN-BEARING SAVIOR

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV)

The famous poem “Footprints” reminds us that in life’s most difficult seasons, Jesus does not abandon us; rather, at the times we are unable to go on, He picks us up and carries us.

We are amazed by the picture of a burden-bearing Savior. He took our sins upon Himself so that we might have freedom. He takes up our shame so that we are no longer hindered by it. What other burdens have never landed on our shoulders because He would not allow it? What other burdens has He taken upon Himself rather than letting them fall to us?

Whatever is loading you down today, you need to carry it no longer. Jesus will scoop the weight in one arm and put His other arm around your tired shoulders. Gently He’ll remind you that it is for these very things that He sacrificed His life.

Today, feel Him removing the weight of burden and holding you near. 

-- From “Hello God… It’s Me: 365 Day Devotional Journal”

#4883

MY BAG OF POTATOES

“When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”  (Mark 11:25 NLT)

One of my teachers had each one of us bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to class. For every person we'd refuse to forgive in our life, we were told to choose a potato, write on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag. Some of our bags, as you can imagine, were quite heavy.

We were then told to carry this bag with us everywhere for one week, putting it beside our bed at night, on the car seat when riding, next to our desk at school.

The hassle of lugging this around with us made it clear what a weight we were carrying spiritually, and how we had to pay attention to it all the time so we wouldn't forget, and keep leaving it in embarrassing places.

Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty slime. This was a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity!

Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person, and while that's true, it clearly is also a gift for ourselves!

-- Unknown  (from a subscriber in Wisconsin)


#4658

THROWING OFF WHAT HINDERS

In Jules Verne's novel The Mysterious Island, he tells of five men who escape a Civil War prison camp by hijacking a hot-air balloon.  As they rise into the air, they realize the wind is carrying them over the ocean.  Watching their homeland disappear on the horizon, they wonder how much longer the balloon can stay aloft.

As the hours pass and the surface of the ocean draws closer, the men decide they must cast overboard some of the weight, for they had no way to heat the air in the balloon.  Shoes, overcoats, and weapons are reluctantly discarded, and the uncomfortable aviators feel their balloon rise.  But only temporarily.  Soon they find themselves dangerously close to the waves again, so they toss their food.  Better to be high and hungry than to drown on a full belly!

Unfortunately, this, too, is only a temporary solution, and the craft again threatens to lower the men into the sea.  One man has an idea:  they can tie the ropes that hold the passenger car and sit on those ropes.  Then they can cut away the basket beneath them.  As they sever the very thing they had been standing on, it drops into the ocean, and the balloon rises.

Not a minute too soon, they spot land.  Eager to stand on terra firma once again, the five jump into the water and swim to the island.  They live, spared because they were able to discern the difference between what really was needed and what was not.  The "necessities" they once thought they couldn't live without were the very weights that almost cost them their lives.

The writer to the Hebrews says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles."  (Heb. 12:1, NIV)

--  Ed Haynes

#3655